Tag Archives: pittsburgh penguins

That sentence (and muscle contraction) was more or less repeated by every person with even a casual stake in the Pittsburgh Penguins. An explanation, though, is probably necessary.

While the Washington area generally had fond feelings for Mr. Boudreau, what with his astounding winning percentage, genial attitude and affinity for gym shorts (typically Al Bundying them), the Penguins fans, well, did not. It’s not that we hated him as a person or thought he was any sort of a villain – we just viewed him as something of a buffoon. Now this had little to do with the barbeque sauce incident…or his rotundness… or even his idiotic commercials. No, there was just something fatally missing about his coaching ability. We took comfort knowing that while the Caps would likely beat us in the regular season (as those were the Cap’s playoff games), Boudreau lacked the strategic ability to get the Caps past the Pens in a multi-game series.

Gentleman scholar

It was then with great sadness when we woke up yesterday morning to learn of his dismissal. Visions of the Capitals own version of the 2009 Penguins danced in our heads. Gone was the coach that took a middling, yet supremely talented team from doldrums to respectability. His very simplistic and aggressive style, which had so successfully transformed the Capitals into a contender, was now guilty of holding them back. What was needed now was a heady, strategically minded coach that will create schemes to match the talent. And that is why the Capitals hired…wait…Dale Hunter?

It’s been a good first week for the Caps. It’s hard to argue with gaining ten out of a possible ten points in your first five games.

You might think “Who have they played?”

I would argue that Carolina is much improved and the Pens are the Pens, but aside from that, it’s not a murderer’s row.

Despite their shopping spree, Florida is just not that good, and I think Tampa Bay is going to backslide as Roloson is starting to show his age.

Vokoun has been good, despite letting in some bad goals from off angles in his first start. The proof for him will be in May, not in October, and he’s not terribly playoff-tested, but if you said to me, “You could have Vokoun for a year for under $2M, or sign Bryzgalov to a stupid 9-year deal that counts almost $6M per year against the cap until he’s 40, I would take the former every time. I’m not sure that Bryzgalov is better than Vokoun, he’s got a history of playoff folds, and it’s a classic Philly goaltending move. The best thing that could happen to Bobrovsky is to get out of there – complete disregard and lack of patience for a promising young talent by Dineen.

What does “Stop throwing hats” mean? Watch the video below and you’ll understand. This site will be all about the Washington Capitals and those who cross them. I know the Pens won the Cup. Congratulations. But that doesn’t mean Sidney Crosby is better than Alex Ovechkin. He’s not. We’ll touch on that subject a lot here. And Pens fans, enjoy Crosby having that one Cup to none lead. It won’t last.